Plug and receptacle assemblies are known in the art for facilitating the transmission of electrical power from one electrical device to another electrical device. Generally, the plug is coupled to one electrical device and is designed to be removable from the receptacle, which is coupled to another electrical device. In this manner, the plug can be inserted into the receptacle when power transfer between electrical devices is desired, and removed from the receptacle when power transfer between the electrical devices is not desired. Typical plugs and receptacles each includes mating electrical contacts surrounded by and coupled to an electrical insulator. The electrical contacts of plugs and receptacles mate with each other to facilitate the transfer of power between respective electrical devices. The electrical contacts are electrically coupled to electrical transmission components (e.g., wires or cables) of the electrical devices. The electrical insulator prevents unintended electrical shorts across non-mating electrical contacts of the plugs and receptacles.
Over time, the electrical insulator tends to degrade or wear down due to repeated insertion of the plug into the receptacle and removal of the plug from the receptacle. Often, sufficiently degraded electrical insulators require repair or replacement. Because conventional electrical insulators are coupled to the electrical contacts of the respective plug and receptacle, which themselves are electrically coupled to other electrical transmission components, the electrical contacts or electrical transmission components must be decoupled from the insulators before repair or replacement can occur. Further, for replacement insulators, the electrical contacts or electrical transmission components must be recoupled to the insulator. In this manner, repair or replacement of degraded or defective insulators requires complete disassembly and reassembly of the associated plug and receptacle, which increases safety hazards, downtime, labor, and expense.
Additionally, conventional receptacle designs employ a pivoting cover that covers the electrical contacts of the receptacle when not in use. Some covers are engageable by a user to manually open the cover from a closed position by grasping the cover and moving it into the open position. Generally, such covers are configured without an open bias. In other words, a user must manually grasp and actuate the cover along the entire path from a closed position to an open position. Because the user must grasp the cover, the operation of opening the cover requires the use of at least one hand by the user. Unfortunately, in particular industries (e.g., mining, oil and gas, etc.) that utilize relatively large plugs, both hands of a user often are required to lift and insert a plug into a receptacle. Therefore, conventional receptacle covers may require a single user to drop the plug, open the cover with at least one hand, and re-lift the plug for insertion into the receptacle. Such a process is cumbersome and time-consuming. Additionally, some unbiased covers do not maintain the cover in the open position and tend to close when opening of the cover is desired. Further, certain biased covers are intentionally biased to close even when opening of the cover is desired. Accordingly, the tendency and bias of traditional receptacle covers to close tends to make opening the cover and inserting a plug difficult due to the cover getting in the way of insertion.
Often, the receptacle is electrically coupled to the exterior of a housing of a power generation device, with the electrical contacts being exposed to an interior of the housing. One common technique for physically coupling the receptacle to the housing of the power generation device is to use mounting bolts that extend into the housing, with nuts inside the housing to secure the bolts to the housing. Typical configurations require access to the interior of the housing in order to fasten the receptacle to the housing or remove the receptacle from the housing. In view of the hazards associated with accessing an interior of a power generation device housing, the power generation device needs to be powered down in advance. Powering down the power generation device to secure or remove a receptacle results in unnecessary downtime, delays, labor, and expense.